This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
41.11343° S, 146.07258° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
On a rainy October afternoon in 1975, a crowd gathered on the foreshore at Penguin to watch a three-metre cement penguin be unveiled. Fifty years later it is on the Tasmanian Heritage Register.
It was built to mark a hundred years since the town's proclamation, and it was the idea of a local grocer, George Daniels, who proposed it as part of the centenary celebrations. R.M. Foster and Associates designed it; the Goliath Cement Company of Railton built it; and thanks to the skill of the craftsman Andrew Bennie and his team it was completed in just over a week. That is a remarkable turnaround for a three-metre cement sculpture and it tells you something about how these things actually got made – not commissioned through a process, but organised by people who knew who to ring.
It was unveiled on 25 October 1975 by John Rowe, a Qantas executive and former local, and became, in the council's phrase, the pride of the town immediately. People stopped for photographs from the first day and have not stopped since.
It has had a life beyond being looked at. It wears Santa suits and other costumes for community celebrations, and it survived a national media scare in 2008 when asbestos was detected in its original materials – later confirmed to be perfectly safe.
The Central Coast Council marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2025. There is also a book, The Story of the Big Penguin, written by Elizabeth Nickols in 2013, which is more than most Big Things can claim.
The town is named Penguin. Little penguins do come ashore along this coast. Nothing about it is arbitrary.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Central Coast Council celebrated the Big Penguin’s 50th anniversary in 2025 and confirms it remains a major visitor landmark; it is also on the Tasmanian Heritage Register.
ACCESS
On Penguin foreshore beside Main Road. Council visitor information and public toilets are directly opposite/adjacent, making this one of Tasmania’s strongest visitor-ready Big Things.
Official state tourism listing identifies the visitor information centre at 78 Main Road with carpark, RV parking and public toilets, immediately adjacent/opposite the Big Penguin foreshore.
